Breaking Bad, “Kafkaesque”: Church.

There’s a part of me that expects the story of Walter White to end in some sort of Scarface-type shootout, with Walter as Al Pacino. “Kafkaesque” seemed to lay down a little more of that framework, with Walter extending his deal with Gus, who’s now the principle meth supplier for the entire Southwest.

As much as Walter tends to roll his eyes or spaz-out every time Jesse gets on his case, he isn’t too proud to recognize when he makes sense, although he may be too proud to let Jesse know it. And I think it was Jesse who convinced him to go see Gus, or at least to bring up their arrangement during their conversation. And rightly so. If it weren’t for Walt and his magic meth recipe, Gus wouldn’t be pulling down so much money on the street. But Gus, ruthless as he is, also seems to be generous when it comes to Walt and agrees to pay him more while at the same time extending his employment from three months to a year. So, Walt’s a millionaire now, and that’s just fine.

Back at the hospital, Hank seems to have come out of the red, although whether or not he’ll walk again is anyone’s guess. With his hospital bills piling up and Marie’s insistence that they get Hank the best care money can buy, their situation is becoming desperate. The quick fix to that problem is sitting right in front of them, although Walt is understandably reluctant to bring it up: he can pay for Hank’s treatment himself using his filthy, ill-gotten drug money. Here, Skyler turns out to be a little more imaginative, coming up with a story that provides an excuse to pay their bills while at the same time explaining her and Walt’s divorce. It turns out that Walt’s idea for providing for his family after he passed away was to win millions counting cards. And after a slight setback – he blew their entire life savings during his fugue state – he’s earned a tidy sum that’s sitting in seven figures. Smart, eh? Marie buys it. Problem solved.

Or is it? When Walt asks Skyler how she could possibly come up with such a story, she says that she learned from the best. It’s hard to dismiss the suspicion that she understands – at least in a small way – what Walt was going through all those months, and why he started cooking meth in the first place. The divorce papers may be signed, but you can’t put a period on their relationship just yet.

During all this we’ve got Jesse, who’s decided to get back into his own meth game with the usual suspects, Badger and Skinny Pete. Using the two of them to build up hype in the middle of his recovery group meeting was pretty cold-blooded, but at the same time shows his determination to make the whole thing work. Unfortunately, like so many other things Jesse’s involved himself in, I have a feeling this will not end well. Whether he screws it up himself or Walt and Gus become wise to his plan, the entire thing has to go south.

Stuff I liked:

Cold-blooded though it may have been, I do like it when Badger acts half-competent.